Running to Masters Swim

BILL NYE! I can’t believe I was in his presence last night. He was so hilarious and down to earth. He had the whole crowd laughing and hootin’ and hollerin’ the entire time. What a blast. He talked to us about how we could “…dare I say it?! CHANGE THE WORLD!” and finding our “Place in Space”. I left feeling inspired and proud to be a chemist.

Anyhoo, this morning, I had the best work out. Instead of catching the bus to campus for masters swim, I decided to run the 2.5 miles (which meant, running 2.5 miles back home afterwards)! I wore my swimsuit under my running clothes, shoved my cap into my iFitness Belt and strapped my goggles to the belt as well. I tempo’ed it all the way there.

At masters, I swam a total of 3000 yards.

Today was a technique day, so we did A LOT of breast stroke, back stroke, freestyle and… yup… butterfly. You should know something: I’ve never once tried butterfly before. This was a first for me. But in the spirit of having fun challenging myself and going with the flow, I decided to learn.

Today was just another example of how nice the coach is. She explained what I should do and showed me a few quick videos on her iphone (portable technology win!). And then I pushed off from the wall and attempted my first 25 yards ever swimming butterfly.

Let’s just say, I’m no pro. It was the most awkward/hilarious/difficult thing I’ve ever done. It was a good lesson in learning to laugh at yourself. Coach E said that I need to “find a rhythm”. I had no rhythm. It’s really quite tough to throw your arms out and around while dolphin kicking, then timing your breathing to the right moment in your stroke. I kept forgetting to breath. I swallowed a lot of water. I laughed a lot. It was hard, but I had fun.

And I can’t wait to try again next week.

To help critique me, she took a video of me during one of my 25s. It’s really cracking me up. I can definitely tell what I’m doing wrong and what I need to work on.

After masters with tired shoulders, I threw my running clothes back on and tempo’ed the 2.5 miles home. It’s not easy to run after swimming! Once I worked the kinks out, I had a solid clip all the way home. I felt strong, healthy, and accomplished. What a great feeling by 9 o’clock in the morning!

I like this whole running to masters swim thing :)

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Butterfly can be difficult to learn, but I promise the “find your rythm” thing will make so much sense once you find yours! One tip, I think its sometimes easier to find your rythm in butterfly if you try the stroke without kicking. Yes, its harder overall that way, but you’ll be able to figure out when your body naturally wants the extra propulsion of a kick during the stroke. Its much easier to discover for yourself than have someone tell you at which point in the stroke to kick.

I’m glad you had fun last night at Bill Nye! That’s so cool. When I was on swim team waaaaay back in the day, I sucked at butterfly. It’s something I just never got the hang of. I hope you have better luck than me!!